


there she stands as if alive

by Walutahanga



Category: Dollhouse, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Genre: Background Character Death, Consent Issues, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Destroying Childhood Memories, Gen, I'm Sorry, Mind Control, Mindfuck, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 03:24:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14179461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walutahanga/pseuds/Walutahanga
Summary: The Angel Grove branch of the Dollhouse has a very specific set of recurring clientele.





	there she stands as if alive

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry. So sorry. I wrote it then I couldn't un-write it, and then I had to share it because I'm cruel like that. 
> 
> The rape/non-con tag is there because of one throw-away line and because this is the Dollhouse, where consent is questionable at best.

Annabelle keeps a careful smile on her face. “I understand your hurry, General,” she says as she pours the tea. “However, you must understand, a Ranger Project cannot be rushed. Time is required to perfect the gestalt.”

Her voice is calm, her movements unhurried. Much like the warm whites and gentle archways of her office, her demeanour is designed to soothe and reassure clients.

McKnight, however is not interested in being soothed.

“They don’t have to be perfect,” he says condescendingly. “They just need to be functional.”

Annabelle sets a cup before each of them. “General McKnight, you appear to be a straightforward man. May I be frank?”

“I’d prefer it.”

“How many Ranger Projects have you taken part in?” 

The man’s cheeks flush an unhealthy colour for his age. “This would be my first,” he grits out.

“The Angel Grove Dollhouse has consulted for five. In our experience, perfection is not optional. It is a necessity.”

“They’re there to fight, not perform brain surgery.”

Annabelle considers telling him about the amount of activity occurring in an Active’s brain during a Ranger battle. Brains may not beat brawn, but it certainly enhances it. McKnight, however, is the sort of man only interested in results.  

“We have attempted basic personalities in the past,” she says instead. “The first generation, when we were still learning how to balance the gestalt, each Active was programmed with a very simple imprint with one or two dominating personality traits. Unfortunately, though they performed very well physically, they were not very convincing in their human interactions. People described them as ‘bland’ or ‘two dimensional’.”

“Sounds fine to me. They’ll be living on an army base, not cavorting about with the public.”

“That was not the problem, General. They had a certain inflexibility, an inability to think outside the box. This caused difficulties in the field where they were expected to react quickly under pressure. We lost two Yellow Rangers and our first Black Ranger that way.”  

Finally she has the man’s attention. He puts down his cup, a bit of moisture still clinging to the corner of his moustache.

“I thought–” He regains his composure. “I never heard about any deaths.”

“Our previous clients demanded a smooth transition between replacements. We simply adjusted the Actives' memories to make them think the originals had retired or never existed. Then we imprinted new Actives and carried on. Behind the masks, the public didn't even notice." 

She thinks regretfully of the waste before they learned that a complex personality ensured a higher survival rate. Even the first Pink, who’d survived her time as a Ranger, had been useless for anything except romantic engagements after a particularly nasty injury.

It was the first Blue, however, that truly haunts her. Annabelle had wanted to tone his intellect down to more reasonable levels but the higher-ups at ZRDN had insisted they wanted a genius. Well, they’d gotten it. A genius imprint that could observe and learn and deduce what he was – but not accept it. Since then Ranger Projects have used aspects of the Cranston imprint, but the intellect is never allowed over a certain level. 

“So you’re saying is,” the General says. “If they’re too simple, they’ll be stupid?”

Annabelle pulls her thoughts out of the past. “In essence, yes. They’ll score very high in IQ, but they’ll freeze up at critical moments. Later, more complex generations had lower casualty rates.”

“Hmph.” He’s frowning, but he’s listening now.

She spreads the files across the table before him. “However, as we appreciate the urgency of the situation, my lead engineer has suggested a stop-gap solution. We instil basic personality templates onto most of the team, but program one complete personality onto the Red.”

“The Red will keep the others alive?”

“The odds are better. It’s still riskier than we like to proceed, but it is the only solution to the time frame required. The others will simply have to be brought in later for updates.” She pushes the red-tipped folder across the table to him. “This is the imprint we call Carter Grayson.”

The General glances at the contents. “A firefighter?” He says dubiously.  

“That is the background we've given him. However his personality traits are an amalgam of different personalities from military backgrounds. He will do _whatever_ needs to be done to complete the mission.”

For the first time the General smiles; a quirk of weathered lips beneath his moustache. “Can he fight?”

“He’s a Ranger. That comes standard.’

“There’s only five here. What about the Sixth Ranger?”

“We advise keeping at least one non-Active Ranger. No matter how complex the personalities, there’s always the chance of a scenario we can’t predict. It doesn’t need to be the Sixth, any one of them will do.” She smiles sweetly before adding: “And if they have difficulty, you can always refer them to us. Tommy Oliver was a difficult Green, but after a little work to smooth out the kinks, he went on to be a very successful White and Red.”

The General is quiet for a moment, grey eyebrows drawn together in thought as he studies the files. She asks: “Shall I have the contracts brought up?”

“Hmph? Yes, yes. Do that.” As she stands, he adds: “Who were they? Before they came to you?”

Annabelle assumes a severe expression, like a high school principal speaking of a promising, yet disappointing student. 

“No one who’ll be missed, I assure you.”

“Bloody young,” he mutters, looking at the file of a smiling dark-skinned young man.

“They’re all young, General. A necessary sacrifice to defend our world. And the Dollhouse does its best to ensure our Actives experience no unnecessary distress; they are as happy and fulfilled in their purpose as we can make them.” She studies his face, and wonders at the contradictions of a man who despises the Dollhouse but engages its services. “Will you be overseeing them directly?”

His hand twitches and he pushes the file back. “I have a man in mind. Reliable sort.”

“Send us his details. We’ll include him in the imprint backstory." She lifts the pot. "More tea?”

“Please."  

She pours with a steady hand.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, which is about a man talking discussing his late wife's portrait with the implication that he killed her and is planning to replace her with a series of wives. It seemed appropriate, given the nature of imprints (an artificial replica of a living personality) and the attrition rates of Rangers here.
> 
> And yes, I know that McKnight didn't have a moustache on the show. He just wrote himself that way.


End file.
